The Trenton Times published the following editorial on May 28, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Editorial: Bizarre Trenton math – Council decides hiring 12 more cops isn’t worth $19 annual tax increase

By Times of Trenton Editorial Board 
on May 28, 2013 at 6:56 AM, updated May 28, 2013 at 6:57 AM

In yet another sucker punch to Trenton, the city council has let slip away a chance to restore some strength to the city’s police force amid a wave of violence some are calling a crisis.

Last week, council members decided to forgo applying for a federal grant that would have covered $1.5 million in salaries and benefits for 12 police officers. The city would have been required to supply $2.27 million in matching funds over three years to get the Community Oriented Policing Services grant.

The reason: Council members did not wanting to raise taxes any more than the 5 percent hike already proposed.

While city taxes are out of control due to failed leadership, the council owed it to the Trenton residents to get its priorities in order.

There is no issue more pressing in the city than public safety. Trenton needs more police officers and as the governing body, the council should take it upon themselves to find a way to fund the COPS grant matching requirement.

The approximately $640,000 in matching funds the city would have had to supply in the first year works out to an average tax hike of 3 cents. That’s just $19 in additional taxes for the home assessed at the city average of $62,800.

Check the math. It’s really just an average of $19 a year, or $1.60 a month to add 12 cops back to the streets.

If council members were to go door-to-door and ask their constituents whether an increase in police protection is worth that investment, we’re confident the answer would be an emphatic yes.

Better yet, don’t do it through a tax hike. There’s nothing preventing council members from combing through city expenditures to come up with the qualifying payment.

In a budget of $186.4 million, $700,000 represents just 0.4 percent. Certainly there have been occasions where the council tapped the city recreation funds to cover less vital expenses.

City council members should have turned over every stone to find the money to bring more police to the bullet-riddled city.

“I don’t see the money,” Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said in siding with the majority against applying for the COPS grant.

That may be because no one is looking for it.